


The Fall

by TheGreatCatsby



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Science, Magic, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 21:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatCatsby/pseuds/TheGreatCatsby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The man had fallen from the sky on a clear day in September, months after the Earth had received its first documented extraterrestrial visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> So kind of sort of blackfrost with a hint of Things I Think About SHIELD Sometimes. If you like blackfrost, another Natasha Saves Loki story should be up within the week. If you don't, I'm sorry.

A needle pierced the skin of his arm. He struggled, but was held fast and felt a strange, cool liquid begin to spread from the puncture point through his veins, following the natural pathways of his body, headed straight for his heart. He was too aware as he followed the path of the poison, but he had no other distractions. He felt the poison make its way to his vital organs, his heart and his brain, his most useful asset. 

Everything went strange from there. 

**

The man had fallen from the sky on a clear day in September, months after the Earth had received its first documented extraterrestrial visit. This man did not look like the other. When SHIELD agents arrived at the site of his fall, he laughed at them and said, “I stopped.” 

They cuffed him, and what ensued was a struggle that Agent Coulson later found hard to explain to Director Fury. The man had almost gotten away, having in his struggles done a few impossible things, including make ice appear from his hands and materialize knives from nowhere. His clothing had been shredded, so there was no way to hide any weapons on his person. 

“It was like magic,” Coulson had said. 

Director Fury looked down at the unconscious body of the slim, pale man who had fallen from the sky and said, “He’s ours now.” 

The experiments began. 

The man only ever gave one thing willingly to the SHIELD team: his name. 

“Loki,” he had breathed before scientists drugged him the first time. 

Fury was aware that this was the brother of the man who had come to Earth before. 

He said not a word. 

**

Natasha Romanov knew that SHIELD made a number of decisions that were considered morally questionable at best. She carried out many of those decisions herself. But when Fury handed her a folder detailing how magic worked along with a case containing two silver magic dampening cuffs, she had to wonder where he’d gotten the information and the technology. And how. 

Still, she completed the mission. She went after a Dr. Strange, decided not to bring him in to SHIELD after determining that he meant no harm, and returned to Fury with the tech and the file. And then she started digging. 

Fury had told her, specifically, not to tell anyone about her mission. 

She told Clint. 

“Magic,” Clint repeated. “Are you kidding me? We get a god with a hammer and now we have Harry Potter shit going down?” 

“I’m more interested in how Fury knows about magic,” Natasha said, “and how to stop it.” 

“Experiments,” Clint said. His eyes widened. “You can’t legally experiment on humans. Fury knows that.” 

“He does,” Natasha said. They looked at each other for a moment. 

When Natasha found the file on an unidentified magic user kept within SHIELD’s labs, she wasn’t surprised. But she found herself feeling a bit disappointed. 

She decided to pay those scientists a visit. 

**

The labs were located underneath the SHIELD base near New York City, and were generally closed off. Natasha enlisted Tony Stark to help her find out which room the subject was in and how best to get past security. 

“I didn’t know SHIELD agents were in the habit of hacking into their own systems,” Stark had said as he worked his way into SHIELD’s security with a few choice keystrokes. “Must be good.” 

Now, Natasha made her way through the lab dressed in a white coat, hands covered in latex gloves and goggles taking up most of her face. She paused in front of the door leading to the room where the subject was kept. Then, she pushed her way in. 

A male scientist was standing over the body on the table, taking notes. Tubes ran from the subject’s arms to various bags full of liquid. Monitors measured vitals off to the side. The whole environment was strangely sterile. 

“Miss-“ the scientist started, but Natasha walked up to him and held up her fabricated ID. 

“This is above you,” she told him. “Out.” 

The scientist inclined his head and scurried out of the room, closing the door behind him. 

Natasha glanced down at the body. 

The man before her was too thin, probably from malnourishment, and too pale. He had inky black hair and, at the moment, was unconscious. 

She placed a hand at the skin of his neck and felt a fluttering pulse. His skin felt cool. 

Then his eyes fluttered open. 

They were a brilliant blue-green, clouded by drugs and exhaustion. 

“Who are you?” Natasha murmured. 

“I fell,” the man rasped. 

Natasha frowned and took note of the thin cloth covering the man’s body, the silver cuffs identical to the ones Fury had given her encircling his wrists, and the various bits of machinery surrounding the bed. They had been testing the limits of his magic, she concluded, and how best to take it away. 

She turned back to look at the man’s face. He was still watching her, brows furrowed in concentration and confusion. 

Natasha swallowed. She should not interfere. SHIELD had to deal with threats and if this was how they did it, she should leave it alone. 

Natasha had always hated human experimentation. (She did not think about how she herself had been an experiment quite a few times in her life.) 

She walked over to the other side of the bed and studied the various tubes leading into the man’s arm, entering at various points. After a few moments she began plucking the needles from his veins. 

“You’re not a scientist,” the man slurred at her. 

“No, I’m not,” Natasha said, discarding the last of the IV’s. “You are going to be very quiet, and we are going to leave.” She glanced up at the door, then took out her phone and made a call. “Clint?” 

“Yeah,” Clint’s voice sounded tinny over the phone. 

“I need your help.” 

**

With a good amount of skill Natasha and Clint managed to evade almost everyone on the way out of the base, and Clint commandeered a helicopter. Natasha had a number of hiding places scattered throughout the world, but she chose the one in upstate New York, a cabin in the middle of the woods near a clearing only accessible by helicopter. The only person besides Clint who knew she was going there was Stark, and only because he’d helped her, and even then only because he could monitor SHIELD’s movements for her and warn her if they started looking. Which they would. 

On the ride over Clint said, “Who is he?” 

The man in question had fallen unconscious as soon as they reached the helicopter and Clint hadn’t said much before then, other than to point out to Natasha that she was probably making a mistake. 

“I don’t know,” she said. 

“Why’d you rescue him?” 

“I don’t know.” 

Clint nodded. “SHIELD does some shit I don’t agree with. But generally speaking, Fury does what he feels is right.” 

“This is going to far,” Natasha said. “You can’t keep people to experiment on them. You can imprison them but…this wasn’t that.” 

“He’s not human,” Clint said. “I looked at his file.” 

“I know.” 

“Maybe he is a criminal, where he’s from. Ever consider that?” 

“Yes,” Natasha said. “And maybe he came here to start over. And by doing this, SHIELD is cultivating an enemy.” 

She glanced at the cuffs around the man’s wrists. She would not take them off. Not yet. 

**

They landed not too long after and Clint made sure Natasha and her new houseguest were settled before heading back to SHIELD. “Call me if you need me,” he said. “Don’t let him kill you in your sleep.” 

Which left Natasha alone with this strange man. 

She’d laid him out on one of the two beds in the cabin and put a blanket over him. When she turned to leave he heard him ask, “Who are you?” His voice sounded awful, hoarse and halting, like he was trying to remember how to speak as he said the words. 

“Natasha,” Natasha said. “And you?” 

“Loki,” the man said, swallowing. He grimaced. 

“Let me get you some water,” Natasha said. She left and returned with a cup, which Loki, who had propped himself into a sitting position, accepted with shaking hands. “Where are you from?” 

“Does it matter?” Loki asked. “I fell.” 

“I gathered. From where.” 

“It matters not.” 

“It matters.” 

Loki set the glass of water down and looked at her. “What will you do to me?” 

“Nothing,” Natasha said. “I could send you back—“

“No,” Loki cut her off. “Please.” 

“Then talk.” 

Loki did. 

He told her a story of two brothers, one in the shadow, one in the light, and how all he had ever wanted to do was impress his father. But he was a sorcerer, not a warrior, and his father remained unimpressed. How his brother had been banished to Earth (and here, Natasha realized, he was talking about Thor, the man who had ended up on SHIELD’s radar a few months ago) as a result of his letting the enemy into the kingdom. How he had learned of his true heritage as the son of the enemy king, of the people who he had been taught were monsters his whole life. He’d tried to kill them all, and in the battle fell through the void. 

He would not talk about the void. The hollow look in his eyes made Natasha disinclined to press him for information. 

“You should sleep,” she said, when he was done talking. 

“They took parts of me,” Loki told her. “They know about my magic. They took my magic.” 

“I know,” Natasha said, and she left and went into the other room, because she needed to think. 

This was the man who had destroyed a small town in New Mexico over a fight with his brother. She had just learned that there was more to it than that. He had fallen through the void (and what was the void?) and SHIELD found him and experimented on him. Drugged him and played with his magic. His magic, Natasha gathered, was the most important thing to him. 

She fell into an uneasy sleep. 

**

The next morning Natasha walked into Loki’s room and saw blood staining the covers of his bed, which was empty. Loki was in the adjoining bathroom, and when Natasha nudged open the door she saw that he was clawing at the cuffs on his wrists, blood dripping from where his nails scrambled at the metal to the floor. 

“Shit,” she hissed, and rushed forward to restrain Loki’s hands. Loki snarled and struggled away from her, but after months of captivity Natasha was stronger and she managed to force him out of the bathroom and onto the bed, where she held each of his arms away from each other. 

There was so much blood. 

“I need my magic,” Loki whispered, desperation stark on his face. 

It made Natasha feel sick. 

“I can’t trust you,” she said. 

“You take me from them only to put me in a cage of your own making,” Loki hissed. He was shaking, and she did not miss the flash of anger in his eyes. “You do not own me. They do not own me.” He lunged forward and knocked Natasha backwards into the wall. Natasha pushed him away and spun them around so that he was trapped and she had the advantage. 

“Listen,” she said between clenched teeth, “if you don’t cooperate I will hurt you. And you won’t get your magic back.” 

Loki’s eyes narrowed. “Fool. Do you think you can keep me here like a pet for as long as you wish? I am not meant to be kept. I am tired of being kept.” 

“I’m helping you,” Natasha said. 

“Give me my magic,” Loki said. 

“Not yet.” 

“Give it to me!” Loki shrieked, striking at her again, but this time Natasha was ready. This time she caught him and pushed him to the floor, where he lay on his back and started laughing, tears springing from his eyes, coursing down his cheeks. 

“Stop it,” Natasha snapped. 

Loki continued to laugh until the laughter sounded like choked sobs. 

Natasha shook him by the shoulders. “Stop that.” 

Loki fell quiet, but he was shaking. “I let go,” he whispered. 

Natasha felt her blood freeze. 

“What?” 

“No one can survive the void,” Loki breathed, “so why did I? I’m a monster, they said. Death is a gift, and I am undeserving.”

“Not true,” Natasha managed. “That—that isn’t true. This is another chance.” 

“Why did you take me?” 

“I know a thing or two about second chances,” Natasha said. 

Loki sighed. “You are the first person who had not lied to me in so long.” 

Natasha took her hands away from Loki’s shoulders and knelt beside him. He did not seem to need restraining any longer. The blood on his wrists was drying, dark stains on pale skin. 

“Such kindness,” Loki murmured. 

“I’m not,” Natasha said. “Just trying to make up for the past.” 

Loki licked his lips. “You and I are the same.” 

Natasha looked into Loki’s face and saw nothing of herself in him. “We are not,” she said. 

Loki looked away. 

**

“Nat, they’re coming.” 

Natasha almost dropped the phone. 

“Nat,” Clint repeated. “They’re coming. Are you there? They found you.” 

“Shit,” Natasha said. “Clint—“ 

“I can come—“

“No, it’s fine,” she told him. “I can manage.” She hung up and walked into the nearest room, where Loki was sitting on the bed tugging at his cuffs. He’d stopped digging into his skin, but she could tell it was bothering him. 

She had the key, and now she took it out and sat down across from him on the soft bed, and took his hands in hers. He looked at her, confused, and she said, “They’re coming back. I can’t do this forever.” She took the cuffs off, one after the other, and they dropped onto the sheets between them. 

Loki flexed his wrists and shuddered, taking a deep breath. His eyes no longer seemed hollow—there was a spark there that hadn’t been present before, and for the first time Natasha sensed power. 

“You realize that I can kill them like this,” he said. 

Natasha did not look away .”I know.” 

**

When SHIELD arrived, agents pouring out of two separate black helicopters, Loki stood at the ready. When they surrounded the cabin, he conjured two daggers and stood by the door. 

Natasha stepped outside and the agents trained their guns on her. 

“I’ll report for debriefing,” she said, taking her gun out of its holster and dropping it to the ground. She stepped back, away from the cabin, and the first of the agents opened the door and stepped inside. 

All hell broke lose. 

Loki was a whirlwind of anger and pain. He slit throats, blood spraying in a beautiful arc as he spun around, following the momentum of the knife’s movement across a man’s neck before he embedded the same knife in the chest of another soldier come to attack. He disappeared and reappeared behind his enemies, conjured illusions for others, impaled one man through the chest with a longer dagger and stabbed another in the face. He was power and precision and he fought with a cool calculation, occasionally overcome by bursts of pure rage. 

Natasha stood and watched. 

Perhaps the experimentation was nothing less than what Loki deserved. But this—this was nothing less than what SHIELD deserved. 

It ended with blood soaking into the ground, bright red staining Loki’s skin as he turned to Natasha, eyes fever-bright, practically radiating magic from his body. He stepped forward in his rags and for a moment the image faltered and he looked exhausted. He only allowed this for a moment before he pulled himself up straight, head tilted towards the sky as if in defiance. 

One agent rose from the ground and pointed his gun at Loki, but Natasha drew a gun from a hidden place and shot him first. 

Loki turned to Natasha, expressionless.

“Your welcome,” Natasha said. 

“I cannot go back,” Loki said. “I will not stay.” 

“I understand,” Natasha said. 

Then Loki smiled. It was wicked, like the edge of a sword, sharp and angry and steeped in blood like the rest of him. “Thank you,” he murmured, and then he was gone, leaving behind only the bodies and the thick smell of blood. 

Later, Natasha would be debriefed, and she would argue with Fury and Clint would speak on her behalf and Fury would not punish her because Agent Hill would agree that what SHIELD had done was unethical, but necessary, and she hoped Natasha would understand. Natasha did and wished she didn’t. She would return to duty on probation, and eventually she would end up working with Stark again on Fury’s Avengers initiative. And that felt better. The Avengers weren’t as tied up in the politics of SHIELD, and their leader, Steve Rogers, had a better moral compass than Director Fury. Natasha could feel like she was washing some red off her ledger. 

She didn’t miss Loki. She didn’t think about where he had gone, if he was still alive. She wasn’t curious about him or his power or how much of an asset he would be to an organization like the Avengers. She didn’t think about what it would be like to fight alongside him. 

She told herself these things and nothing more.


End file.
